Why do they insist on getting it wrong?
A couple weeks ago I made a spectacular, world-shaking post about a small RPG company that decided to insult about half of their potential customer base while also telling their base to *not* buy the product. That’s remarkable enough, but the company has not only continued to insult their potential customers, they’ve also pointed out that they fundamentally do not understand their own product.
Their game is a Cthulhu Mythos-based role playing game. One of the most important features of cosmic horror as defined and virtually invented by H. P. Lovecraft is “madness.” The universe is so vast and uncaring that if you get a good look at it, the horror of it all will likely break your tiny little brain and drive you mad or kill you outright. Madness is as fundamental to the Cthulhu Mythos as space wizards and lazer swords are to “Star Wars,” optimism and interstellar adventures are to “Star Trek” and sparkly teen vampires are to “Twilight.” So… behold:
There are no sanity rules in Fate of Cthulhu. We don't require anyone to play or perform mental illness.
(If you choose to, we have guidance on how to do it respectfully.)
Instead your PC gains Corruption, a potent, alluring slice of the Elder Gods' power.https://t.co/v0F853zsM0 pic.twitter.com/13tLqmE3wR— Evil Hat Productions (@EvilHatOfficial) January 30, 2020
“There are no sanity rules in Fate of Cthulhu. We don’t require anyone to play or perform mental illness.
(If you choose to, we have guidance on how to do it respectfully.)
Instead your PC gains Corruption, a potent, alluring slice of the Elder Gods’ power.”
What. The. Frak.
Dude. Dude. Naw, dude. If you meet one of the Great Old Ones, you don’t gain superpowers… you go bugnuts, get mutated into Class A body horror, burn to a crisp, vanish from existence. You don’t get *stronger.* That’s the whole friggen’ point: you can’t deal with this ᛋᚺᛁᛏ. It’s beyond you. Your efforts to be a badass only make Nyarlathotep chuckle.
Now, if they want a game where meeting the scary transdimensional space monsters gives you superpowers, great. Go ahead and invent that universe. Nobody will complain. But that’s not what they’re doing. Instead, they’re doing the “circle of diversity” thing of colonizing an existing property and then twisting it to suit their own ends while insulting the original fans. But what’s the *real* reason why they’re not creating their own thing, when they manifestly hate what they’re actually colonizing? Let the game designer explain:
Yes, we wanted to do something with Cthulhu because Cthulhu sells. That’s not us playing anybody. Just because we wanted to do that thing, it’s not therefore true that we could not then want to do anything else at the same time, like directly calling out HPL’s documented facts.
— deadly fredly (@fredhicks) February 3, 2020
“Yes, we wanted to do something with Cthulhu because Cthulhu sells.”
Not “we wanted to do Cthulhu because Cthulhu is awesome and a great basis as-is.” Instead… cash-grab.
After seeing Ghostbusters 2016, JJTrek, STD, Disney Star Wars… I’m a bit tired of seeing people taking over franchises and iconic cultural properties and turning them not only into talentless garbage, but garbage that is directly opposed to what the actual property actually is. This kinda makes me want to revive my “War With The Deep Ones” effort. If these anti-Lovecraftian hacks could make a mint on Kickstarter… why the frak can’t I?